Mothering Is a Practice. Not a Title.

I was at the grocery store during #TeacherAppreciationWeek, picking up a few things for my kid's teachers, when I exchanged a "Happy Mother's Day" with the cashier and the bagger.

But before I did, I added something I've been saying for a while now: It's a day for all who are mothering.

Both women (people of color, different ages, different stages of life) didn't just nod, they actively agreed. Emphatically. Like I had said something out loud that they had been carrying quietly for a long time.

That moment stayed with me.

Because here's what I know to be true: mothering is not a title. It is a practice. And for many of us - especially women of color, and especially in communities like ours - it has always been that way.

The Practice Has Always Been There

Long before the cards, the brunch reservations, and the flower arrangements, there were people doing the work of mothering without a single piece of recognition.

The auntie who stepped in when she didn't have to. The grandmother raising a second round of children without complaint. The older sister who became a parent to her siblings before she even understood what that meant. The neighbor who kept your kids so you could hold your job, your sanity, or both.

None of them waited for permission to show up. They just did.

That is the practice: unwavering presence. Quiet resourcefulness. Stability that holds other people together, even when you're holding yourself by a thread.

Our Families Already Know This

For LGBTQ+, Interracial, Mixed-Race & Non-Traditional Families, the definition of "who mothers" has never been narrow. It couldn't be.

In our families, mothering might come from a person who doesn't identify as a woman. It might come from a chosen family member, a co-parent, a donor-conceived family's support network, or a community of people who rallied around a child simply because that child needed them.

We have always known that mothering is bigger than biology and wider than a legal title.

And what society is slowly catching up to - what that cashier and bagger confirmed for me in about four seconds - is that this truth resonates far beyond our communities. It lives in every family that has been held together by someone doing the quiet, essential work of caring.

Today Is For All of Them

So today, we're not narrowing the celebration. We're expanding it.

Happy Mother's Day to the person who showed up. To the one who figured it out with no blueprint. To every Builder in this community who is mothering — whether or not that word has ever been directed at you.

You are the foundation. You always have been.

Together, we make anything happen.